Fasting and Israeli Goods

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Are you one of those who buys Israeli dates? Do you buy the orange juice called “Tapuzina”? Do you give your children money to buy fireworks made in Israel?

If you buy these items, or some of them, your fast is void, even if you spend your time bowing and prostrating, even if the night prayers of Ramadan wear themselves out on your behalf. Why? Because you are voluntarily, generously supporting the Israeli economy, supplying Israel with the strength that enables it to continue its aggression against the Palestinian people and the various Arab and Islamic peoples. A kilogram of Israeli dates costs around 35 shekels, depending on the honesty or dishonesty of the merchant selling to you. If the cost of manufacturing a single M16 bullet is 0.8 agorot (Israeli currency), that means you are contributing to the manufacture of around 44 bullets — enough to kill 44 Palestinians or Lebanese.

If you buy a bottle of Tapuzina that costs you 5 shekels, you are contributing to the killing of 6 Palestinians or Lebanese. And if you give your child money to buy fireworks, most of them manufactured in the Zionist settlements, you are doubly a criminal: once for encouraging Israeli industry, and again for disturbing people a great deal and wasting their money. You waste people’s money when you throw your own money down the path of the devil.

If you engage in these and similar acts of promoting Israeli goods that neither you nor people generally have any need of, you are openly violating the rules of fasting, because you feel nothing for the nation and provide direct support to its enemies, who trample its holy sites, displace its people, uproot its trees, and confiscate its land. You are not fasting — you are a criminal, even if you cling to the hem of Al-Aqsa’s garment and shed tears over it and fill the world with cries and wailing. And you are a liar, even if you join night to day in fasting, and spend both day and night in prayer and glorification. Your deeds give the lie to your rituals and contradict your words.

If there are some among us who do not rise to such a simple understanding of the Islamic religion, then we certainly need re-education before we can ever claim to want to liberate the homeland, or even establish a feeble state.

Some ask: why doesn’t the Authority ban the import of Israeli goods for which a Palestinian alternative is available, or for which there is no Palestinian need at all? I do not believe the Palestinian Authority was created for the sake of national struggle, and it falls to us, the Palestinian people, to reprogram our own activities in order to reclaim the initiative. And if the Authority is sinful, and the Palestinian factions sinful along with it, that is no acquittal for individuals. And if individuals stand together, courageously, to set things right, they will succeed, and will force the merchants, agents, and dealers to respect the will of the people.

Some will object, saying: what effect could my boycott of Israeli goods possibly have on Israel’s strength? I ask you in return: what could a single mosquito hovering around you while you sleep possibly do to you?

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “الصيام وبضاعة إسرائيل” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.